The Triple Helix: International Cases and Critical Summary - Technopolis: Best Practices for Science and Technology Cities - page 65

Table 1 Technopolis success factors
Embracing change
Social capital, especially with cross-sectoral links
Cluster strategies that target specific company groups for collocation
Visionary and persistent leadership
The will to action
Action
Constant selling
Self-investment in infrastructure
Outreach and networking
Source Phillips ( 2006 )

the development of technology clusters, research parks, and metropolitan-area
technopoleis like Austin or Silicon Valley.
Tech clusters and technopoleis are nonlinear phenomena. The accident of one
influential person moving to a city, or the accident of one company spinning out
from a university—the ''butterfly effect'' of complex system theory—can set the
cluster/technopolis on a trajectory of growth or one of stagnation. A cluster/
technopolis on a growth trajectory is subject to positive feedback, or lock-in. This
means the benefits of locating in the city increase faster than the number of
companies present. Lock-in implies that each new or relocated company, uni-
versity, or government office makes the city more attractive.
It also implies that once located in the city, companies will be slow to leave,
even if business conditions change. Locales lucky enough to experience this lock-
in will enjoy lower recruiting costs, and fewer problems with ''clawing back''
incentives extended to companies that do not stay in the region for the contracted
amount of time (or create the contracted number of jobs).
The triple helix hypothesis is that cross-sector cooperation creates a second,
reinforcing lock-in cycle. The hypothesis also notes that cross-sector cooperation
makes an already complex system even more complex, thus increasing the
opportunities for disaster (Leydesdorff 2000 ; Etkowitz 2002 ; Benner and Sands-
tröm 2000 ; Cho 2008 ). Even if disaster is avoided, saturation will eventually set in.
Silicon Valley's success led to congested highways and unaffordable housing—
and as a result many experienced entrepreneurs and investors moved to Austin,
Texas, to start leaner, cleaner companies.
Most of the cases in this briefing involve locales that interacted with Austin's
IC 2 Institute in developing their own technology-based growth strategy. It will
help set the scene for the following cases to quote one of the Institute's clients
(UTEN 2009 ) about IC 2 :

The IC 2 Institute has a 30-year track record of working with emerging, developing, and
developed regions worldwide on how to effectively structure industry-science-academic
relationships to transfer and commercialize innovative and creative knowledge/technology
to build wealth and high quality jobs while providing for a sustainable quality of life.
Austin, Texas, is known internationally as having leveraged academic, business, and
government collaboration to transform a mid-sized central Texas government and